Drama before Elizabethan Theatre

1. Drama before Elizabethan Theatre • When Elizabeth I came to the throne in 1558 there were no specially designed theatre buildings in England. Companies of actors toured the country and performed in a wide variety of temporary acting spaces, sometimes building stages and scenery for a particular series of performances, and sometimes simply using an unaltered hall or open space. • an average touring company consisted of five to eight players, often consisting of four adult men and a single boy to play all the female parts

2. Soon after Elizabeth came to the throne laws began to be passed to control wandering beggars and vagrants. These made criminals of any actors who toured and performed without the support of a member of the highest ranks of the nobility. • Many actors were driven out of the profession or criminalised, while those who continued were forced to become officially servants to Lords and Ladies of the realm. Touring was increasingly discouraged and many of the remaining companies were encouraged to settle down with permanent bases in London.

3. The first purpose built theatrebuilding in England - originally and solely intended for performance - was called “The Theatre”, eventually giving its name to all such buildings. It was built in 1576Earl of Leicester’s Players who were led by James Burbage - a carpenter turned actor.

4. In 1599 Burbage’s sons became involved in a dispute over the land on which the Theatre stood and solved their problems by secretly and suddenly tearing down the Theatre building and carrying away the timbers to build a new playhouse on the Bankside, which they named The Globe. By this time the Burbages had become members of the Lord Chamberlain’s Company, along with William Shakespeare, and the Globe is famously remembered as the theatre in which many of Shakespeare’s plays were first performed.

5. When Shakespeare first arrived in London in the late 1580s or early 1590s, dramatists writing for London's new commercial playhouses (such as The Curtain) were combining two different strands of dramatic tradition • the Tudor morality plays and • classical aesthetic theoryderived ultimately from Aristotleinto a new and distinctively Elizabethan synthesis. Previously, the most common forms of popular English theatre were the Tudor morality plays. These plays, celebrating piety generally, use personifiedmoral attributes to urge or instruct the protagonistto choose the virtous life over Evil.

6. William Shakespeare April 23, 1564. - • Though William Shakespeare is recognized as one of literature’s greatest influences, very little is actually known about him. What we do know about his life comes from registrar records, court records, wills, marriage certificates and his tombstone. Anecdotes and criticisms by his rivals also speak of the famous playwright and suggest that he was indeed a playwright, poet and an actor.

7. Shakespeare was baptized on April 26, 1564 and it is assumed that he was born on April 23, 1564. In 1582 at age eighteen, Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway, an older women who was twenty six at the time. Shakespeare left Stratford for London to make his fortune roughly fours years later.

8. By 1595, Shakespeare was sufficiently successful to be named as one of the more senior members of the Lord Chamberlain's men, an acting company that performed frequently before court. This was no small honor; this prominent theatre company later became the royal company called the King's Men, making Shakespeare an official playwright to the King of England.

9. Shakespeare's works are often divided into four periods beginning with what is referred to as • an experimental period 1591 - 1593 which includes: • Titus Andronicus, • Love's Labour's Lost, • The Two Gentlemen of Verona, • The Comedy of Errors and • The Taming of the Shrew.

10. The second period ending around 1601, marks the establishment of Shakespeareand includes: • the tragedy • Romeo and Juliet, • the comedies, • The Merchant of Venice • A Midsummer-Night's Dream • Much Ado about Nothing • The Merry Wives of Windsor • the history plays, • Henry IV, Parts I and II, Henry V, • Richard II, • King John • Julius Caesar.

11. The third period ending around 1610 marks perhaps the apex of Shakespeare's work with the tragedies, Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth, King Lear • comedies • Twelfth Night, All's Well that Ends Well • the epic history play -Antony and Cleopatra.

12. The final period ends around 1611 with the plays, Henry VIII • romances such as -Cymbeline, The TempestandThe Winter's Tale. • The Shakespeare we read today comes from The First Folio of 1623 written by fellow actors John Heminge and Henry Condell to preserve Shakespeare's legacy. • No original manuscriptsexist, many of these manuscripts were written purely for performance and were not regarded as pieces of literary work. There is also no general consensus on when all the plays were first performed.

13. Shakespeare's plays, especially in the experimental period were hardly original, borrowing plot features from earlier plays. Likewise with his history plays, Shakespeare compresses events and does not follow history too closely to add to the drama. • Borrowing plots and taking liberties with historical facts was not uncommon in Shakespeare's time and his skill for language, imagery, pun and his creative adaption of myth and history have set Shakespeare apart as arguably the greatest playwright of all time.

14. Tragedies -Histories • Common Features of the Shakespeare Histories: • The Shakespeare histories share a number of common features, • Set against Medieval English history. The Shakespeare histories dramatize the Hundred Years War with France and therefore comprises the Henry Tetralogy, Richard II, Richard III and King John – many of which feature the same characters at different ages. • Not historically accurate. In writing the history plays, Shakespeare was not attempting to render a historically accurate picture of the past. Rather, he was writing for the entertainment of his theater audience and therefore adjusted historical events to suit their prejudices.

15. Explore the social structure of the time. Shakespeare’s history plays offer a view of society that cuts right across the class system. These plays present us with all kinds of characters from lowly-beggars to the monarchy. In fact, it is not uncommon for characters from both ends of the social strata to play scenes together. Most memorable is Henry V and Falstaff who turn up in a number of the history plays.

16. Shakespeare wrote 10 histories. These plays are distinct in subject matter only – not in style. The histories provide an equal measure of tragedy and comedy. • The 10 plays classified as history are as follows: • Henry IV, Part I • Henry IV, Part II • Henry V • Henry VI, Part I • Henry VI, Part II • Henry VI, Part III • Henry VIII • King John • Richard II • Richard III

17. Tragedies • Shakespeare’s tragic heroes are all fundamentally flawed. It is this weakness that ultimately leads to their downfall. The bigger they are, the harder they fall. The Shakespeare tragedies often focus on the fall of a nobleman. By presenting the audience with a man with excessive wealth or power, his eventual downfall fall is all the more tragic. External pressures. Shakespeare’s tragic heroes often fall victim to external pressures. Fate, evil spirits and manipulative characters all play a hand in the hero’s downfall.

18. Shakespeare wrote 10 tragedies. • Shakespeare's playsoften overlap in style and there is debate over which plays should be classified as tragedy, comedy and history. For example, Much Ado About Nothing is normally classified as a comedy, but follows many of the tragic conventions. (e.g, Claudio's excessive behaviour and the malcontent in the play,) • The 10 plays generally classified as tragedy are as follows: • Antony and Cleopatra • Coriolanus • Hamlet • Julius Caesar • King Lear • Macbeth • Othello • Romeo and Juliet • Timon of Athens • Titus Andronicus

19. Richard isShakespeare'sfirstvillain-hero. Self-acclaimed as onewhowill "outdoMachiavel," he possessesall of thetraits of thatElizabethanstagevillain. Primarily he ismotivated by boundlessambition to gain and hold thecrown, and by hispronouncedegotism. Utterlyheartless, he doesnothesitate to moveagainsthisownbrothers, arrangingforthemurder of Clarence, misleading and laterslandering Edward IV, and putting to deathhisownnephews. Itisimplied in the text that he alsopoisonedhiswife Anne so thatthewaywouldbeclearforhispoliticalmarriage to hisniece, Elizabeth of York. A master of dissembling and a man obviouslynotwithoutcharm,

20. Add to allthistheenergywithwhichheinitiates and carriesouteveryactionnecessary to hisgainingthecrown and, for a time, retainingit, and onecanunderstandwhyhedominatestheplay to anextenttowhich no otherShakespeareantragicherodoes. • Hissoliloquies and asidesreveal a Richard whoishonestatleastwithhimself. Courage and soldierlyprowessalsobelong to him. Finally, hepossessesanunexcelledsenseofirony and a sardonicwit, whichgofar to explainhisspecialattractiontoaudiences and readers.

21. Comedies • Shakespeare’s 17 comedies are the most difficult to classify because they overlap in style with other genres. Critics often describe some plays as tragi-comedies because they mix equal measures of tragedy and comedy. For example, Much Ado About Nothing starts as a Shakespeare comedy, but takes on the characteristics of a tragedy when Hero is disgraced and fakes her own death. At this point, the play has more in common with Romeo and Juliet, one of Shakespeare’s key tragedies.

22. Features of a Shakespearean Comedy • What makes a Shakespeare comedy identifiable is is an ongoing area of debate, but many believe that the comedies share certain characteristics: • Comedy through language:Shakespeare communicated his comedy through language and his comedy plays are typical of clever word play, metaphors and insults.

23. Love: The theme of love is prevalent in every Shakespeare comedy. Often, we are presented with sets of lovers who, through the course of the play, overcome the obstacles in their relationship and unite. • Complex plots: The plotline of a Shakespeare comedy contains more twists and turns than his tragedies and histories. Although the plots are inbtricate, they do follow similar patterns. For example, the climax of the play always occurs in the third act and the final scene has a celebratory feel when the lovers finally declare their love for each other.

24. Mistaken identities: The plot is often driven by mistaken identity. Sometimes this is an intentional part of a villain’s plot, as in Much Ado About Nothing when Don John tricks Claudio into believing that his fiance has been unfaithful through mistaken identity. Characters also play scenes in disguise and it is not uncommon for female characters to disguise themselves as male characters.

25. Frequently (but not always), it contains elements of the improbable, the fantastic, the supernatural, or the miraculous, e.g. unbelievable coincidences, improbable scenes of recognition/lack of recognition, willful disregard of the social order (nobles marrying commoners, beggars changed to lords), instantaneous conversions (the wicked repent), enchanted or idealized settings, supernatural beings (witches, fairies, Gods and Goddesses). The happy ending may be brought about through supernatural or divine intervention (comparable to the deus ex machina in classical comedy, where a God appears to resolve the conflict) or may merely involve improbable turns of events.

26. In the best of the mature comedies, there is frequently a philosophical aspect involving weightier issues and themes: • personal identity; the importance of love in human existence; the power of language to help or hinder communication; the transforming power of poetry and art; the disjunction between appearance and reality; the power of dreams and illusions.

27. Poetry • Evidence that the great Bard was also a poet comes from his entering his first poem Venus and Adonis in the Stationers’ Registrar on the 18th of April, 1593. The playwright registered his second poem The Rape of Lucrece by name on the 9th of May, 1594.

28. In 1609, Sonnetswere published without the Shakespeare´s permission. It is considered unlikely that William wanted many of his deeply personal poems to be revealed to the outside world. • It was not, however, the first time; in 1599, in a collection entitled "The Passionate Pilgrim" , two of his poems had been printed without William’s permission.

29. Sonnets • SONNET XVIII. • Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate:Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer's lease hath all too short a date:Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimm'd; And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance, or nature's changing course un- trimm'd;But thy eternal summer shall not fade, Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st, Nor shall death brag thou wander'st in hisshade,When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st; So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

30. Sonnet 18 is the best known and most well-loved of all 154 sonnets. It is also one of the most straightforward in language and intent. The stability of love and its power to immortalize the poetry and the subject of that poetry is the theme. The poet starts the praise of his dear friend without ostentation, but he slowly builds the image of his friend into that of a perfect being. His friend is first compared to summer in the octave, but, at the start of the third quatrain (9), he is summer, and thus, he has metamorphosed into the standard by which true beauty can and should be judged. • By putting his love's beauty into the form of poetry, the poet is preserving it forever. "So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee." The lover's beauty will live on, through the poem which will last as long as it can be read.